About the survey

This is not your basic "get a bunch of people to respond" survey. We're examining ISD projects here, so we need ISD project participants. Specifically, we need three kinds of project participants:

• Executive sponsors and project managers
• End users
• Developers

This means we need to identify a number of ISD efforts that actually have this structure. This eliminates tiny projects and projects without significant end user input into the requirements set.

Executive sponsors and project managers are key to determining whether each project was considered a success. There are a number of complicated methods (surveys of users, examination of defect rates, etc.) available to assess project success, but one of the fastest techniques is to just ask the people that spent the money whether they consider the project to have been a good investment. Turns out there are a lot of "soft" factors associated with this assessment, and they change from one organization to another. Executive sponsors are also key to identifying the other ISD project participants and motivating them to participate in this study. So that's where I'll be starting.

End users will identify the level of trust and reciprocity they enjoy with the other members of the team, and will also indicate their level of understanding of the software development process used on the project, and how they came to that understanding. Developers will do likewise, but with a focus on the clarity of the captured requirements.

The process

First, I will attempt to identify a number of ISD projects that fit the basic requirements for this study. To do this, I'll be using my network of contacts (and their networks, if possible) to locate a good set of executive sponsors. Once a sufficient number have agreed to participate, I'll ask them to identify associated project managers and from there, locate the appropriate end users and development team members. Each project will receive a unique identification number.

Next, each participant will receive a survey that is internally coded to their project, and tailored to the role they played in that project. Then the nagging will begin.

When enough responses have come in to cover each of the three roles (manager, end user, developer), the project will be added to the main data set for this study.

This could take awhile.

Current status

February, 2008: I'm starting the process by looking to the most influential contacts I have in my network and shamelessly begging for their help. With any luck, they'll be able to put me in contact with a good set of executive sponsors.